"We're heading towards the centre and also the Turkish consulate, which we're about 500 metres from," he said.

As the Iraqi forces are pushing deeper into the city's more densely populated areas, they appear to face further resistance from the IS militants.

"Daesh is using houses full of residents as human shields," Mohammadawi said, using the Arabic acronym for IS.

Tensions between local and foreign IS extremists have emerged with the local militants complaining against the foreign jihadists who are withdrawing from the battle, claiming that the IS leader, Abubakir al-Baghdadi has ordered them to move to Syria.

Iraqi forces, backed by coalition air force, launched a new phase of operations on February 19 to reclaim the western half of Mosul which is yet under IS control. Since the beginning of the operations the Iraqi forces have managed to retake a number of areas including Mosul airport and Ghazlani military camp.